The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge were among more than 35 pro-net neutrality organizations from 19 countries to join to create a new joint website, an EFF news release said Wednesday. The site will contain details of net neutrality laws, policies and practices globally to be used by advocates, the release said. The group, called the Global Net Neutrality Coalition, also agreed on a common definition for net neutrality -- that it “requires that the Internet be maintained as an open platform, on which network providers treat all content, applications and services equally, without discrimination,” the release said. "We love the openness and accessibility of the [Internet], but we worry about it coming under threat from those who want to surround it with gates and toll booths,” said Jeremy Malcolm, EFF senior global policy analyst, in another release about the coalition from Access, one of the groups involved. “Net neutrality is important for all of the world's internet users, and it is just as essential for countries with robust internet infrastructure as it is for those still building infrastructure,” said Carolina Rossini, Public Knowledge vice president-international policy, in the Access release.
Cisco supports increasing E-rate funding and believes it's “critical” to ensure funding for connections inside schools, CEO John Chambers told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a phone call Monday, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-184. Chambers also told Wheeler it’s important to find a “compromise” in the net neutrality debate “that will be good for all parts of industry as well as for consumers,” said the company. A regulatory structure “designed for monopoly telephone services is not appropriate for the vibrant Internet of today" and the FCC "should formulate balanced rules to protect the open Internet,” Cisco said. In a separate meeting Tuesday, Jeffrey Campbell, Cisco vice president-government affairs, told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel there’s still a “risk for insufficiently funding internal connections to the classroom because funds are only made available for internal connections after all requests for connections to the buildings are funded,” said an ex parte filing. Raising the E-rate cap would alleviate the problem in the short term, but “it is not clear that it will be solved for the future,” Cisco said. One possibility is to cap new funds for fiber construction, to ensure funding for internal connections, Cisco said. The commission is scheduled to take up Wheeler’s proposed $1.5 billion E-rate spending cap increase at its Dec. 11 meeting.
Three waivers of requirements on eligible telecom carriers to re-certify eligibility of Lifeline subscribers annually were granted by Ryan Palmer, chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau's Telecom Access Policy Division, said an order Tuesday, posted in docket 11-42. The ETCs’ certification processes were sufficient to ensure all Lifeline subscribers are eligible, the order said. The waivers were granted for a petition filed by Budget PrePay, another by SE Acquisitions, and a third by Cricket Communications and Leap Wireless International. A waiver also was granted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which sought an extension for the date of the uniform eligibility criteria for ETCs in the state. The PUC requested additional time to implement the requirement. Dismissed was NTCH’s petition seeking reconsideration of the bureau’s deadline for broadband pilot applications because the deadline has passed and the pilot program will be ending shortly, the order said.
The reply period for Neustar’s petitions to rebid the Local Number Portability Administrator contract was extended from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday in docket 09-109. “The extension will allow parties more time to reply to comments on Neustar’s petitions, and reflects the upcoming federal holiday.” Telcordia, which was nominated by the North American Numbering Council to win the contract, and telcos have been pushing the commission to award the contract this year (see 1411240055). The extension shouldn’t keep the agency from acting in 2014, said Wilshire Grannis telecom lawyer John Nakahata, who represents Telcordia. "This is like pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey. Everyone gets to enjoy the holiday weekend."
While praising the FCC for taking on “sunny day” 911 outages caused by software and other problems as opposed to storms, the National Association of State 911 Administrators is still reviewing the wide-ranging NPRM approved Friday (see 1411210037), Director Evelyn Bailey told us on Tuesday. Several LECs we contacted were also still reviewing the NPRM and had no comment. The notice deals with changes it says have made providing 911 more “complex.” While legacy 911 services were provided by ILECs, a growing number of system service providers (SSPs) have become involved, offering “specialized components … within the chain of connectivity previously provided by a single entity,” the NPRM said. “A growing number of disruptions to 911 service are caused by software malfunctions, database failures, and errors in conversion from legacy to IP-based network protocols,” the proposal said. The SSPs can be located in a different state than public safety answering points (PSAPs), and “have the potential to affect many states at once, or even all of a service provider’s customers nationwide,” the NPRM said. The seven-state 911 outage in April (see 1410170057) was caused by a software coding error at an SSP’s call routing facility, it said. In response, the NPRM proposes a policy statement that it “encourages and supports” local authority over 911. But in saying the commission has a responsibility to oversee “the increasingly complex component pieces of the nation’s 911 infrastructure,” it proposes a greater role for the agency. It would expand rules on 911 reliability to cover “all entities that provide 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities … regardless of whether they provide such capabilities under a direct contractual relationship with a PSAP.” The NPRM also proposed expanding requirements on providers to mandating “the reliability and testing of software and databases used to process 911 calls.” The NPRM also seeks comment on whether service providers should be required to notify the commission and the public of any major changes to the providers’ 911 network architecture or services, and whether to require commission approval to “discontinue, reduce, or impair” 911 services. States would continue to have authority to certify new 911 providers in their areas, but given the impact providers can have across state lines, the NPRM also proposed requiring new providers to certify to the commission they have the “technical and operational capability to provide reliable 911 service.” The new providers, though, would not be subject to commission approval, it said. The NPRM was approved on a party-line vote, with both commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai saying in dissents that the FCC was overstepping its authority into what’s been a local responsibility. “Replacing state and local governance with Washington-knows-best bureaucracy will leave 911 systems less nimble and responsive to the needs of local communities,” said Pai, who opposed the certification process. He asked, “How many 911 providers will simply decide not to offer an innovative, new capability because of the FCC’s all-encompassing process?” O’Rielly said the notice “does not even bother to attempt a cost-benefit analysis for this greatly expanded regulatory scheme.”
Neustar remained on a “negative CreditWatch listing,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said in a news release Monday. The listing “reflects ongoing uncertainty regarding whether Neustar will retain the [Local Number Portability Administrator] contract,” said Allyn Arden, an S&P credit analyst. Neustar was originally placed on CreditWatch on June 12, after the North American Numbering Council recommended the LNPA contract be awarded to Telcordia. “While the ultimate outcome has yet to be determined, we believe there is a significantly greater risk that Neustar could lose the contract, which would have a material impact on the company's financial risk profile,” S&P said. Neustar derives “roughly half of its business” from the contract, S&P noted. Companies are placed on CreditWatch if "events or circumstances occur that may affect a credit rating in the near term, usually within 90 days," an S&P spokeswoman said. CTIA and telecom associations and companies are pushing the FCC to award Telcordia the contract by the end of the year (see 1411240055). The LNP Alliance, made up of small and medium providers, urged the commission Nov. 21, in comments posted in docket 09-109 on Monday, to extend Neustar’s contract by two years and reopen the bidding process. Small providers were excluded from the selection process, the alliance said.
About three hours after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at the Nov. 21 commission meeting that the agency needs to be careful in adopting net neutrality rules because “the big dogs will sue," (see 1411210040), a Verizon executive emailed him to say there’s one way to avoid having ISPs barking in court: Communications Act Section 706, an ex parte filing said. Saying he’d seen reports of Wheeler’s “view of the inevitability of litigation challenging the Commission’s eventual Open Internet rules,” Randal Milch, Verizon general counsel, included a blog post he’d written. Milch’s post describes why “Open Internet rules based on Section 706, and which prohibit 'harmful paid prioritization,’ will not be the object of a successful court challenge -- by Verizon or anyone else,” said the email, posted as an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 14-28. Under a Title II approach, “the ISPs, and perhaps some in the tech industry, will have no choice but to fight the sudden reversal of two decades of settled law,” Milch wrote in the Nov. 4 blog post. Title II proponents could also sue “if the FCC forbears from too many arcane common carrier rules for their taste (and to keep their fund raising pipeline flowing),” he wrote. Should the FCC take a Section 706 approach, Milch’s blog post said, “all of the major ISPs and their trade associations have conceded that the FCC can lawfully prohibit harmful paid prioritization on this basis -- effectively waiving their ability to challenge the FCC’s authority to do so and taking them out of the litigation path.” USTelecom has said it would be “compelled” (see 1410310050), and AT&T has said it would “expect” to challenge a Title II approach in court. Opinions varied among those involved in the debate about whether Wheeler’s comment revealed the path the agency is considering. AT&T, USTelecom and Verizon declined to comment. One Title II opponent said Wheeler’s concern about a court challenge indicated the agency is moving toward some form of a Title II approach because the prospects of an ISP legal challenge would be moot under a Section 706 approach. Free State Foundation President Randolph May disagreed in an email to us, but said “I am hopeful he's beginning to recognize that Title II, even in hybrid form, is just way too problematical.” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said he didn’t read much into the remark, describing it as a "'Washington poker face.’ Wheeler is well aware that any statement he makes will get scrutinized for clues. But he can't refrain from comment because people would try to figure out what his refusal to say anything means. So 'someone will sue, so we want the best Order possible' is about as safe as a prediction as possible,” Feld said. Free Press, in a letter to the FCC, posted Monday as an ex parte filing, again disputed the methodology used by economists Kevin Hassett and Robert Shapiro in a study submitted to the commission by USTelecom, saying capital investments by broadband providers could decline by as much as nearly a third over the next five years if the FCC takes a Title II approach. Hassett and Shapiro defended their study to us at the time (see 1411190035).
The continued decline in the number of customers with traditional landline phone service bolsters USTelecom’s petition for forbearance (see 1410070050) from “archaic regulations that divert spending to narrowband networks and perpetuate inefficient legacy network architecture,” the association said in a blog post Tuesday. By the end of 2015, more than half of households nationally will be using only wireless phones for voice service, and only about 5 percent will be using traditional switched lines, wrote USTelecom Senior Vice President-Communications Anne Veigle. Only 10 percent of households will get most or all their phone service from incumbents, the post said. The data was based on FCC landline data, as well as Centers for Disease Control national and state wireless data, the post said.
Dozens of filings and FCC public notices from August and September were posted on the agency’s electronic comment filing system Monday and Tuesday after staff noticed the links to them were not working when they were originally posted, an agency spokeswoman told us Tuesday. When a staff member refreshed the links, it reposted the filings in the Electronic Comment Filing System, the spokeswoman said. The links have now been fixed and there shouldn’t be more problems, she said. After problems with ECFS in the wake of a record-setting onslaught of net neutrality comments, the FCC has been working on other fixes (see 1410310028 and 1411030039).
The FCC should create net neutrality rules under both Title II and Section 706 and focus the debate on what sections to forbear from Title II,” AOL Chief Counsel-Global Public Policy Leigh Freund and Steptoe & Johnson’s Pantelis Michalopoulos told Gigi Sohn, Chairman Tom Wheeler’s special counsel-external affairs Nov. 19, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Monday. They said banning paid prioritization under both Section 706 and Title II “provides the appropriate analytical framework that can accommodate different views on the scope of regulation and forbearance. Reasonable minds can disagree over that scope -- some favor total forbearance, while others prefer more limited forbearance,” AOL said. “But that conversation should occur with a firm ban on pay-to-play arrangements” as the essential backdrop, the company argued. Both complete or limited forbearance “allow for exceptional arrangements that might be permissible subject to prior Commission approval (for example, a request by an independent Internet Service Provider who does not have market power and does not charge end users for authority to deploy a different price model),” AOL said. The commission should not forbear from all or part of Sections 201, 202, 208, 222, 251, 255 and 256, Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood and Policy Counsel Lauren Wilson told commission General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and Associate General Counsel Stephanie Weiner Nov. 19, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday. “Sections 201, 202 and 208 form the core of the Title II, and the heart of the entire Act in many respects, with that trio of statutes providing sufficient authority for strong Open Internet rules,” Free Press said. The group, though, “discussed the possibility of deferring decisions on forbearance … until a later date while staying their application’ until then. Further research is needed “of that procedural question,” said the group, which said it will provide further analysis on the issue, the filing said. Free Press also said, “the record in this docket is complete” on “which statutes the Commission must retain in order to adopt Open Internet rules -- namely, Sections 201, 202, and 208.” The record is also complete on “which statutes may be necessary (as a basis of authority in other proceedings) to promote important policy goals such as broadband competition, universal service, and consumer protection, even if some few questions remain as to how and when to make those determinations in other proceedings,” Free Press said.